Review | Sleek's Matte Me

You guys know how much I love Sleek products from my previous posts. I was in Superdrug the other day which is unusual for me since the local Superdrug is quite small compared to the giant Boots we have. I am so glad I went though because their makeup collection is just next level. I spotted that they had a Sleek stand and it had an entire range of products that Boots didn't. So of course I went to town on the entire section.

I'm still trying out some of the products that I got but my stand out favourite so far is the Matte Me lip colour that I picked up. There was a range of shades but as a fan of a bright red, I had to try out the Rioja Red first.

It is gorgeous! I've not really ventured into the world of liquid lipsticks before now, preferring my traditional creamy/balmy lip colours that I can then set with Lipcote. I might just be converted now though. The colour of this is just beautiful.

The consistency is thick and creamy. It applies smoothly with the thin applicator which helps keep things precise. I put this on bare lips so I can't say how it performs with a lip liner, though I'm not sure you'd need one with this product.

It dries almost instantly to a matte finish that won't budge. Long lasting lip colour is always important but particularly so with bright red shades.

It does dry completely, though. The texture becomes like paper which can be a bit uncomfortable. However, you can remedy that by whacking on some of the Max Factor Lipfinity balm which puts some moisture back and helps your lips feel smooth without smudging the colour.

There's a whole range of shades but I'm guessing it's quite popular since the Sleek Website is sold out of this and other colours. Definitely pop into your local Superdrug and see if they have some in stock to test out yourself. For £4.99 a tube, you can't go wrong.

I picked up one of their True Colour lipsticks in a deep burgundy colour that I'm trying out now. I'll post a review of that shortly so definitely check back here :-)

Tabitha

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Review | Superdrug Vibrance Mango Copper Burst 7.4

I love to dye my hair and have tried a dye from most brand ranges and shades. Recently, I've been sticking to my blonde summers and auburn winters.

But the problem with auburn, as any bottle redhead knows, is that it can fade so very quickly! I was so disappointed when my Nice N Easy auburn shade washed out in just three weeks. Keen to get my auburn back, I ventured into Superdrug to see if I could find the perfect copper-red shade.

 I'll be looking for the perfect shade forever, but I did find a close second. This is the Mango Copper Burst shade from Superdrug's Vibrance range currently priced at £4.49 a box:

Linked here in case my apartment's lights aren't doing it proper justice. Now, according to the back of the box, my hair was going to go quite a bright orange.

However, knowing how quickly red fades, I figured I was better to go stronger with my shade choice now and have it fade to the warm copper red I'm looking for after a few washes. I'll admit, I felt severe intimidation when I mixed it up in my Primark tinting bowl.

This is two boxes worth of dye as I have long/thick hair

It's a distinctly tomato soup shade.....but I'm a daring woman when it comes to hair dyeing so I thought I'd put it on. 

Initially, it had a strong dye-smell but it wasn't as eye watering as previous dyes I've used from other brands and once I started to apply it, the scent was barely noticeable.

It goes on very orange but that helped me to see where I had and hadn't applied it. The formula is quite thin though, and even though I used two boxes, it really didn't go far. My hair is quite thick and goes down to the middle of my back, but two boxes is usually enough for me in other brands. I found that by the time I reached my top section, I only had a trace amount left in the bowl. I definitely couldn't saturate my hair which was disappointing and led to panic hair massaging to try and disperse the product (semi-successfully).

The dye has to stay on for a pretty standard 30 minutes and continues to be a bright (and scary) orange while it's on.

I did get dye on my skin but it washed off with soap and water.

You do have to use shampoo when you're rinsing it out according to the instructions which felt a bit wrong but the conditioner it came with was pleasant smelling and left my hair in good condition.

Here are the results:

Before (left) and After (right)

I'd say the result I had matches that of the box pretty well (for once) and I have to say the colours blended well with my natural highlights. 

There were some areas where the colour is weaker in the top sections but it's definitely not patchy. My colleagues actually thought I'd put in highlights as well because it was the top-section that suffered the lack of dye and it actually blended to look deliberate (so lucky it did!).

Shine-wise, this product could do better. Other brands tend to produce a high shine result where this on definitely didn't. 

Summary: 6/10 - Love the colour but so disappointed at how little product there was. If you're thinking about buying this dye, get one extra box than you think you need and then maybe another one for safety. I'd say that if you're the type of person (like me) that has to use a palmful of conditioner just to get all of their hair, you're definitely going to need 3-4 boxes of this dye. 

Tabitha

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